Roast Pork Belly

This is one of HY and my favourite pork dish. I have finally come to making time to create the roast. Got this recipe from Almost Bourdain's blog site and added Hua Diao wine for the extra fragrance. It turned out that making this dish delicious was the easiest. However, to make the skin beautifully crispy was a bit more difficult. Use Dijon mustard as dip sauce for a better taste.

Ingredients :

1 kg of pork belly ( I separated the pork belly into 2 halves for to prepare for my parents and my in-laws)

marinade for skin :
1.5 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon Hua Diao Wine
1 table spoon of rice wine vinegar

marinade for the bottom side (opposite of the skin side) ;
1.5 cubes of red fermented bean curd
o.5 tablespoon of five spice powder
0.5 tablespoon of chopped garlic
1.5 table spoon of salt
0.5 tablespoon of sugar


Method :

1) Turn the pork belly with the skin facing down, bottom side facing up. The leaner part of the meat should be facing up. Score the meat diagonally (Do not score the skin)

2) Mixed up the ingredients for the pork belly's bottom side marinade. this should become a paste.


3) Marinade the skin with the salt. Rub them all over the skin. Pour the hua diao wine and spread them uniformly.

4) Marinade the bottom side (with marinade prepared from step 2). Make sure the paste is spread evenly into the scoring.


5) Wrap the pork belly up into a cling wrap and leave it in the fridge for 1 day to marinade.


6) When ready to cook, pre heat the oven to 220 deg C. Place the pork belly onto the grill with the skin faced up. Make sure there's the tray below the grill to collect the oil that will be drained out during the roasting. Leave the pork belly to bake for 20 minutes.

7) Remove the pork belly from the oven and poke the surface of the skin with a fork. Poke as many holes as possible as this will release the melted fats from beneath the skin to provide a crispy surface. Pour 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar and hua diao wine and spread over the skin evenly and then return the pork belly into the oven.


8) Set the temperature to 250 deg C and bake for 30 minutes or until the skin is hardened.

9) Remove the pork belly and let it cool down for about 15 minutes before chopping it up.

Pan Fried Pork Loin with Mushroom and Celery Sauce

Pan Fried Pork Loin with Mushroom and Celery Sauce
The sauce was generously poured over the meat.

Sectioned Pork Loin
Glad that its not dried up on the inside. It's still juicy!

Another "experimental" trip to my fridge and here's the ingredients that I find for a 1 person portion (2 people if you have other dishes or you are trying not to eat too much). HY likes it!

Meat :
300g pork loin cut into 3 pieces
Black Pepper and Salt
1 table spoon white wine

Mushroon and Celery Sauce :
2 stalks of celery (chopped up)
1 onion (chopped up)
3 cloves of garlic ( finely chopped)
1 chilli (unseeded and sliced)
8 wild mushrooms (thick slices. About 3 slices per mushroom)
150g of chicken stock (or 1 teaspoon of Knorr chicken stock with 150g of water)
1 table spoon corn flour with some water.

Method
1) Mix the pork loin in a bowl with white wine, black pepper (generous) and salt (about 1/2 teaspoon). Leave the pork to marinate in the fridge for 1 day.

When ready to cook,

2) Heat up the pan to high heat, pan fry the pork loin till all the faces are cooked and take them out when there's browning.

3) Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Place the pork loin into the oven to cook the inside of the meat for 5~10 minutes. Do not overcook else the meat becomes too dry.

4) While the meat is in the oven, stir fry the onion with some olive oil. When there's slight browning or the onion turned a bit translucent, add the garlic and stir fry, then add the celery and chilli. Stir fry for about 3~4 minutes in all.

5) Add in the mushroom and stir fried for another 1 minute.

6) Add in the chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Lower the fire and leave the vegetable to simmer for about 2 minutes.

7) Add salt and pepper to taste.

7) Add in the cornflour solution to thicken the sauce.

Plating

8) Place the pork loin onto the plate and then pour the Mushroom and Celery sauce over the pork.

Stir Fried Pork Tenderloin with Celery and Potato

It's been a while since I post my weekend cooking. This implies more crash and burns until this Pork Tenderloin dish. Before I cooked this dish, I remembered a similar dish that my mum cooked for me. However, she clearly didn't use celery which I had added on my own. So here's the list of ingredients which I actually salvaged from my fridge, saving them from neglect and potential wasteful decomposition.

Ingredients (Portion serves 2) :

1 strip of pork tenderloin about 500 g cut into small chunks

1 potato, cut into 8~10 strips

2 stalks of celery, chopped up into pieces of about 1.5cm sections.

2 cups of chicken stock

1 table spoon rice wine

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Add 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of rice wine to the tenderloin. Mix them up uniformly and leave them in the fridge for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight)

2. Bring the chicken stalk to a boil. Add the celery and potato to the chicken stalk. Simmer on low heat till the potato strips are soft. About 10~15 mins. Put them aside.

3. Add some olive oil to a frying pan at high heat. When the pan is fully heated up, quickly fry the garlic, and then add in the tenderloin and stir fry. Add the vegetables with the stock to the meat and them stir fry. The potatoes should be soft enough that they erode and thickens the stock while stir frying.

4. Cover the lid and let the tenderloin simmer for 1 minute. Make sure that the tenderloin is not overcooked by forking it to test that the fork poke through the tenderloin smoothly. Taste the sauce. Add more salt and pepper to taste

The dish is ready to be served.

Fried Chicken with Spicy Honey and Lemon Sauce

 

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Drumsticks with bones and skin removed

1 egg

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon rice wine

1 teaspoon light soya sauce

Plain Flour (for frying)

1 stalk Spring Onions (for garnishing)

(for sauce)

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon of ginger, finely chopped

1 chilli, seeds and stalk removed, finely chopped

Juice from 1 lemon

3 tablespoons of honey

starch

Method:

Marinating Chicken

1.  Cut the chicken into 3cm wide strips. 

2. Place the chicken into a bowl. Add some salt and pepper, soya sauce and rice wine.

3. Mix them up till chicken pieces are uniformly coated. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hours (left overnight in the fridge preferred)

Preparing the Spicy Honey and Lemon Sauce

4. Place garlic, ginger and chilli into saucepan and stir fry for 1 ~2 minutes. 

5. Mix the honey uniformly with the lemon juice inside a bowl before adding the mixture into the sauce pan

6. Simmer the sauce with low heat until it bubbles. Add some starch to thicken the sauce

Frying the chicken

7. Beat up the egg in a small bowl. Put some flour in a plate. Heat up oil in a wok.

8. Coat the chicken pieces in egg and them coat them with the flour then plae them gently into the heated oil. Fry till the chicken pieces are golden brown.

9. Place the fried chicken aside to drain off excess oil.

Plating

10. Transfer the fried chicken onto a plate. Drizzle some spicy honey and lemon sauce onto the chicken.

11. Garnish with spring onions

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast with leek and garlic

Sectioned Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast

Ingredients (2 servings)

1 chicken breast cut into 2 halves (without skin)

1 tablespoon of butter

8 strips of streaky bacon

4 table spoon of olive oil

4 sage leaves chopped up

Pepper and Salt

1 stalk of leek chopped up

6 cloves of garlic crushed

Method :

1. Combine chicken breast, butter, olive oil sage,

sprinkle of salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix them

up till the chiken breasts are uniformly coated.

2. Create a tray with aluminium foil big enough to fit

in the chicken breast. sprinkle the chopped leek onto

the tray. Place the aluminium tray into the baking tray.

3. Wrap each chicken breast half with 4 strips of

streaky bacon. Try to cover the chicken thoroughly.

Place them in the middle of the aluminium tray.

4. Add the 6 cloves of garlic around the chicken and

some squeezed right between the 2 chicken breast halves.

Fold the aluminium tray edge stowards the chicken such that

the leek are covered and will not get burnt in the oven later.

5. Sprinkle some pepper over the bacon wrapped

chicken. Drizzle a little olive oil over.

6. Heat up the oven to 200°C and set it for about 10 minutes.

Place the chicken into the oven to bake for 25~30 minutes.

Pork Chop with Honey Sauce

This is a recipe that I adapted from the recipe in the TVB magazine. As this is a Hong Kong based magazine, it is the Hong Kong style Chinese pork chops without bread crumbs coat.

Ingredients:

500g of pork chops

2 tablespoons of chopped onion

1 tablespoon of chopped celery

2 teaspoons of garlic paste

1/2 teaspoons mixed herbs (can be remove if you don't like mixed herbs)

1 teaspoon chopped parsley 

1 egg

Chicken powder (I used the fried chicken powder, "Gollips" brand that I got from my market)

A pince of salt and white pepper (for marinating)

Honey Sauce - 

3/4 cup chicken broth (substituted with Knorr chicken stock)

3 tablespoon of ketchup

1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

3 teaspoons chilli oil (substitute with 1 finely chopped chilli without seeds)

1 1/2 tablepoons of honey

1 teaspoon of mustard 

Method : 

1) Cut pork chop into slices of about 8mm thickness. Place them in a bowl. Add the pinch of salt and white pepper and mix them thoroughly. Leave them in the fridge overnight or for at least 2 hours.

2) Frying the pork chop : Beat up the egg. Prepare a frying pan of oil for deep frying (Make sure the oil is hot. Dip a wooden chopstick and make sure there's bubbles start forming around the chopsticks). Coat the slices of pork chop with egg and then dip them onto a plate of the chicken powder till the powder coat all parts of the pork chop. Carefully drop them into the oil and then run as far as you can. Just joking do not run away just be careful of sputtering hot oil. Repeat for all pork chop. Leave them  aside in a plate/bowl with kitchen paper. If possible do not place them flat on the faces. Try to keep the meat on its edges  by leaning them against a deeper plate or big bowl. This drains away the most amount of oil. Leave them aside.

3) Mix all the ingredients for the honey sauce.

4) Stir fry the onion, celery and garlic for about 2 minutes. Pour the honey sauce to cook until it boils. Turn to low heat.

5) Add the mix herb and chopped parsley sparingly (depending on how you like the fragrance) I tasted the honey sauce without the herbs and it is already good enough. Scoop out the honey sauce into a bowl and serve the pork chop separate of the sauce. Pour the sauce as much as you like on your plate of pork chop or fork the pork chop and dip into the bowl of honey sauce to serve.

Step 5 was where I deviated as we liked to eat the pork chop without the sauce and then dipping into the bowl of sauce sparingly (right in front of the TV watching Hong Kong TVB Serials).

Here's the orginal step if you like to follow,

Original step 5 : Add the mixed herbs and chopped parsley into the sauce with the pork chop. Toss them well. Plate them and garnish with parsley. (This is the procedure that I skipped and deviated)

Enjoy!

Spicy Pan Fried Alphabets

  

I decided to steal some of HY's alphabets (for alphabet soup) to try out something for Sunday dinner. This experimental dish tasted like fried olive rice except that alphabets was used instead.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

1 onion, chopped

1 chilli with seeds removed, chopped

2 stalk of celery, chopped

6 strips of back bacon cut into bits

1 cup of alphabet pasta

4 tablespoons of olive oil

1 sprig of thyme finely chopped

1 sprig of parsley finely chopped

Method :

1) Add thyme and parsley to olive oil. Whisk them in a bowl and leave aside to let herbs infused into olive oil.

2) With a spoonful of olive oil stir fry the onion, celery until they are soft, add in the chilli and stir fry for a while then scoop them up to set aside.

3) Stir fry the bacon until the edge is slight brown. Add the onion, celery and chilli and mix them in low heat. Then set aside.

4) Boil 1 litre of water and then add the alphabets pasta. When the alphabets are soften (do not over soften or they'll turn marshy), strain them with a strainer. Wash under tap for a while. Try to drain as much water from the alphabets by tossing them gently in the strainer. 

5) Once the alphabets are cool from the tossing, release them into the bowl of olive oil and herbs. Mix them up gently till herbs and oil cover the alphabets uniformly.

6) Turn the heat to medium heat. Fry the alphabets for about one minute. Add the bacon, onion, celery and chilli into the aphabets and stir fry for about another minute. 

Ready to serve, by SLURP

Capellini with Pan Seared Scallops and Back Bacon

HY was out having dinner with friends this Friday night. Just back from office and lazy to get food in the nearby hawker centre. So I decided to ransack my fridge to see what's there for cooking a dinner good enough for a lonely husband. I cooked a portion enough for two, ate one portion and kept one portion in the fridge. The capellini that I heat up in the microwave the next morning still taste pretty good. Glad HY's not keen on heavy breakfast ..... Slurp!

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

2 servings of capellini or angel's hair

4~5 slices of back's bacon chopped up into small pieces (my last few slices that's gonna go overdue)

4 pieces of scallops (frozen US scallops, I'm sure you'll do better with the fresh ones)

1 sprig of rosemary

1 sprig of thyme

1 sprig of parsley

6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1/2 onion chopped up finely

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of butter

Method :

Making the herb with olive oil
1) Chop the rosemary, thyme and parsley leaves into fine bits. Scoop up about 1 teaspoon and place into a soup bowl.
2) Add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin oil and mix them up. Leave them aside.

Stir frying the onion and bacon
1) Heat up 1 tablespoon of oilive oil and stir fry the chopped onions. When the onions are softened, leave them aside in a plate.
2) Place the bacon in the pan and stir fry with medium heat until some fats melt off the bacon and the edges slightly brown. Add the onions back into the an to stir fry. Leave them aside.

Pan Searing the Scallops
Melt butter in the pan and place the scallop on one side. Cover the pan with a top. Flip the scallop over when one surface is slight browned. Repeat on the oppsite face of the scallop. Leave the scallops aside to drain off excess butter when they are done.

Preparing Capellini
1) Boil about 500ml of water. Cook the capellini with the boiling water for 2~3 minutes until it soften and able to swirl freely in the water. Do not overcook.
2) Strain away the water and rinse the capellini under the tap for a while. Toss the capellini in the strainer to drain as much water out as possible.
3) Whisk the olive oil and herb mixture to "wake" it up. Place the capellini into the the bowl and mix gently.
4) The onion and bacon into the bowl and mix them up.

Plating
Split the capellini into 2 plates and the top them with 2 scallops each. Sprinkle a little parsley flakes over the scallops.

My "Ferocious" Lobster Bisque Recipe

Ingredients to serve 4 people

2 fresh lobster (about 1kg each not too big as the meat becomes tougher)

3 cubes of Fish Stock (Knorr brand)

3 litres of water (for stock)

1 tablespoon olive oil

20g of butter

2 carrots (chopped)

2 stalk of celery (chopped)

1 large onion (chopped)

4 tbs white wine

1 teaspoon Parsley flakes

200 ~ 300g of tomato paste

200g of thickening cream

1 tablespoon flour (for starch)

Preparing the lobsters:

1. I got the lobsters fresh from the seafood seller and got them to separate the lobster head and body (save me the hastle of chopping a flustered lobster). I got them to trim the feelers short too. Bring it home to refrigerate until you need to use it.

2. Before cooking wash the lobster under a running tap with a medium soup pot. At this point the lobster may still be moving but not as vigorously now (you may still see little twitches and movements but nothing spectacular). Pour away the water and leave it aside.

3. Flip the tail end of the lobster with the underside facing upwards, the top hard shell on a chopping board. Cut a slice on the soft shell, using a scissors, to expose the meat inside. The shell here should be softer than the top side. This is to allow the meat to be more uniformly cooked later. I was trying to use the top side as a decoration so I'm not creating any incision on the top shell. Otherwise, simply split the lobster tail in half with a knife.

Method :

1. Throw the 3 cubes of fish stock into the soup pot (I used a 12" soup pot) into 3 litres of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and then turn to low heat and continues to simmer.

2. While the fish stock is cooking, heat up a frying pan, add the olive oil and then the butter. Stir fry the carrots, onion and celery until they are soft and then add them into the pot of fish stock.

3. Add the 2 lobster heads into the soup pot (at this point I still see some feelers and leg movements even when the lobster heads were severed 2 hours ago). With a big soup ladle, place a lobster tail into the soup pot until the meat is half cooked (if the lobster tail is not split as mention above, the meat will not be cooked uniformly). Put the half cooked lobster tail aside in a plate. Repeat with the next lobster tail. Leave the stock to simmer.

My lobster heads in the pot of vegetable and fish stock

4. Remove the lobster meat from the tail carefully (so that the tail shell will not be damaged, else the lobster bisque don't look as "ferocious" anymore). Throw the shells back into te stock to simmer with the head. Cut the half cooked lobster meat into smaller bite chunks.

My Half Cooked Lobster Meat

5. When the stock is reduced to half, remove the vegetables, shells and lobster heads. I used a strainer and ladle for this purpose. Keep the lobster heads and lobster tail shells. Throw the rest away (not the soup stock OK?). At this point, taste the soup stock as a reference.

All strained out

6. Add 4 tablespoons of white wine and stir the soup.

7. Add 1 teaspoon of parsley flakes ( you can used fresh parsley if you like) into the soup.

8. Add the tomato paste in portions and stir. Taste the soup to see if you'll like more tomato taste over the lobster's flavor. You don't want so much that you end up drinking tomato soup. Leave the soup to simmer for 10 mins.

8. Add the thickening cream and stir till the soup is uniformly colored. At this point judge if you'll like the soup to be thicker. If you'll like to add the starch in gradually till it's your prefered thickness.

9. Split the lobster meat into four portions. With a ladle, dunk each portion, into the soup until its just cooked and then placed the meat into the soup plate.

Plating

Normal plating - Pour the soup into each soup plate and sprinkle some parsley flakes. Add some more wine if you'll like to. Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste.

My "Ferocious" Lobster Bisque plating - Placed the lobster head at on end of the plate and the lobster meat at the center and then followed by the lobster tail shell (see first photo at the top). Sprinkle some parsley flakes and then add a dash of salt and pepper to taste.

Close up of the chunks of meat between lobster head and tail

姜汁撞奶 "Collision of Ginger Juice and Milk" ........ Ginger Pudding

As a lover of both ginger and milk, I came close to ecstasy when I had Ginger Milk Pudding in dessert shops or restaurants. The first time I came across Ginger and Milk Pudding was in the streets of Kowloon, Hong Kong. In Cantonese, they call it, 姜汁撞奶, directly translated as "Collision of Ginger Juice and Milk", which is exactly what it is. I can't imagine how easy it is to create this dessert at home until I tried it today. The goodness of ginger and milk into one. Isn't that marvelous?

My bowl of "Collision of ginger Juice and Milk"

Recipe for 2 servings -

Ingredients :
4 tablespoons of Old Ginger Juice
2 tablespoons of Sugar
400ml of Full Cream Fresh Milk

Method :
1. Extract the ginger juice from some old ginger (click on the link for, "How to extract ginger juice").
2. Pour milk into a sauce pan and add sugar under low heat. Stir gently till all the sugar has melted and leave it to simmer till bubbling just occurs. Remove from heat and stir gently to cool for a while.
3. In a small bowl, add 2 tablespoons of ginger juice. Wake it up by stirring the juice.
4. Steadily pour the milk into the bowl while gently layering the ginger into the milk. After that, leave the mixture to cure for about 10 minutes. Do not stir the mixture after you are done pouring. (When milk is added to ginger juice, a chemical reaction takes place, and the mixture coagulates into a curd like texture.)
5. Repeat step 3 and 4 for the second bowl.
6. When a light tap with a teaspoon do not penetrate the surface, the Ginger Milk Pudding is ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Sharing my Ginger Tea Recipe

I have been a very fond of Teh Halia (ginger flavored milk tea) ever since I was first introduced to the drink by my dad. The lingering spiciness after a mouthful of the drink is what I was most looking forward to. Call this personal sadomasochism if you must.

This type of ginger tea, ginger infused into black tea, is the kind found in the local sarabat stall (An Indian Muslim drink stall). However, the recipe I am sharing is just made from ginger without the black tea. This recipe was imparted to me by a Balinese lady at a spa where I had regular body massage and I love the ginger tea that they made.

I've heard about the goodness of ginger from my grandmother and my mother. Some use it as a rub to relieve pain from sore muscle (as practiced by my grandmother before). Ginger is also used in massage sessions for the same purpose. It is known to improve blood circulation, relieving stomache gas, arthritis and the list goes on ........

Visit Wonders of Ginger which describes the goodness of ginger in a nutshell.

Here's the ginger tea recipe imparted to me from a Balinese lady who works in a spa that I frequent. This is good for 2~5 people. It help me improve digestion and soothe a chronic joint problems.

Simple Ingredients :

1) 2 pieces of old ginger about the size of your palm. It must be the old ginger to get the "oomph" for spiciness. This should be enough to extract 200ml of ginger juice. If there's more than enough, you can store it in your refrigerator and then use it another time.

2) 1 or 2 pieces of honey rock sugar. This type of sugar can be commonly found in Chinese Medicine Hall. You can substitute this with honey. I've tried this with Manuka Honey and it taste good too.

Procedure :

1) Peel the light brown skin off the ginger

I'm using a fruit knife for this purpose which may not be too appropriate but I find that I can easily scrap the skin off the "valleys" between two close branches of the ginger. (Now I use a spoon to scrap off the skin. Works well.)

Peeled ginger

2) Grate the ginger with a grater to a slight coarseness. This is for extracting the ginger juice with minimal cloudiness. I've tried the blender but somehow I prefer the taste of my ginger tea made by manual grating.

My coarse ginger puree

3) Extract the ginger juice by placing the grated ginger on the strainer and then press with a table spoon. There should be better tools then what I'm using for the extraction, but it's all I have that can do the job in my kitchen.

My ginger juice in a glass container. You can store extra ginger juice in the refrigerator to use another day.

4) With 200ml of the ginger juice mix about 600ml of water. Bring the mixture to boil and then turn to a low flame and then add about one piece of the honey rock sugar. Stir till the solution is boiled. Control the portion of sugar to suit your personal taste. The yellowish mixture will turn brown.

It's ready to be served. Just be aware that it may be too spicy for you. Drink it in small portions or dilute it with more water if you find that it's too spicy.

Wanna try some?

Egg White & Bacon Omelette with Hollandaise Sauce

I've decided to do something with the back bacon in my refrigerator. Bacon and eggs would be a simple fix but I chose to venture just a little further. So, I made the Egg White & Bacon Omelette to go with Hollandaise Sauce. The Hollandaise sauce goes well as a dip for my toast too!

Recipe serves 2 person.

Ingredients:

Hollandaise Sauce -

3 oz of butter

1/4 cup whip cream

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Omelette -

4 strips of back bacon

Egg whites from 3 eggs

1 small sprig of thyme

Method :

Preparing the sauce -

1) Melt the butter in a small saucepan, Remove froth from the surface. Set it aside to cool.

2) Whip the cream till it soften

3) Mix the egg yolks with 2 table spoon of water in a small saucepan. Whisk for 30 seconds. then whisk over very low heat for 2~3 mins until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat. (Do not heat the pan too hot or else you'll end up with scrambled eggs)

4) Add cooled butter a little at a time. Whisk well eachtime the butter is added.

5) Add lemon juice and whisk slowly just to mix.

6) Add whip ceam into mixture and slowly fold them into the mixture with a spoon.

Preparing the Omelette-

1) Grill the back bacon in 250 degrees C heat for 10~15mins or untill edges are charred. Remove to cool.

2) Heat up a small pan in small heat and drizzle the pan with olive oil.

3) Add a layer of egg white and then place 2 slices of the bacon over the egg white.

4) Add more egg white till it covers the bacon (Make sure there's enough egg white for another serving).

5) flip the omelette and heat for 10 seconds and plate the omelette.

6) Repeat for the next omelette

Plating -

1) Pour the Hollandaise sauce over the omelette

2) Add a little thyme sprig to add a little fragrance

3) Add some black pepper

Pork Loin with Aracena Whiskey Sauce

My wife bought the "Appetite" magazine that featured Peter Kaminsky's "Perfect Pig" among other meat related food books. I purchased the book following my personal inclination to pork dishes. Pork Tenderloin with Aracena Whiskey Sauce was chosen as part of the birthday present for my wife and I am glad that she enjoyed it. Thanks to Peter Kaminsky and Susi Delgado. Happy Birthday Darling!

Hopefully, this dinner helped erased her bad memories from my experimental "purple" pork chops with an overdose of balsamic vinegar.

Here's my presentation of Pork Tenderloin with Arcena Whiskey Sauce with the recipe adapted from Peter Kaminsky's "Perfect Pig", inspired by Susi Delgado Gonzalez at Bar Manzano.

Ingredients :

For Whiskey sauce -
6 cloves of garlic, skin on

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons beef stock ( I substituted this with 1/4 cube of Knoss chicken stock)

Juice of 2 lemons

2 tablespoons bourbon (Got the Jim Bean bourbon whiskey)

Preparing Pork -

2 pounds boneless pork roast or tenderloin (I've used pork loin instead). Cut the boneless pork loin into strips 1 inch by 1 inch by 4 inches.

Method :

1. In a saucepan, dry roast the garlic over medium-high heat until the skin chars.

2. Add olive oil, butter, beef stock, lemon juice, and bourbon (any brown whiskey can be used. Bourbon is prefered for its smooth smokiness)

3. Reduce over medium flame approximately 10 minutes and then set aside.

4. Cook pork loin in a cast-iron or heavy All-Clad-type pan about 7~10 minutes, turning frequently.

Plating -

Slice the pork parallel to the long side of each piece. Fan out 3 or 4 slices for each serving. Spoon the whiskey sauce with whole garic cloves over the pork.

Mini Chicken Burger with Garlic Mayonnaise

The Mini Chicken Burger with Garlic Mayonnaise recipe is adapted from the recipe book "Chicken - Best Ever Poultry Recipe". I've decided to make it into smaller mini portions for the after morning run breakfast. A cup of Coffee Chari, Vietnamese Coffee from Cafe Mai (compliments of my brother and sister-in-law who came back from Hanoi),  after the burger makes it a satisfying breakfast.

(Recipe to serve 2 persons, or 4 mini burgers).

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, with bones and skin removed

2 teaspoon of lime juice

1 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce

(Opitonal - 4 mini slices of bacon)

4 mini buns (for convenience bought mini butter rolls)

1 tomato sliced

2 few leaves of Romaine lettuce

For Garlic Mayonnaise

1 egg yolk

1 clove garlic crushed

1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 table spoon olive oil

1. Cut the chicken breast into 4 equal pieces and place them in a non-metal container (container preferable to be good for refrigerating). Prick the meat with a fork several times. Combine lime juice and chilli sauce in a small bowl and then pour the mixture onto the chicken pieces. Mix them so that the mixture coat the chicken meat. Cover the container and refrigerate for several hours or preferably overnight.

2. To make garlic mayonnaise : place the egg yolk into a bowl with the mustard, garlic, and lemon juice. Mix them up with a fork or a spatula until smooth. Of course, you can do this with a food processor. Add the olive oil and mix till it looks consistent. Cover and refrigerate until required.

3. Preheat barbecue grill or flatplate and then set to medium heat. Lightly grease the hot barbeque grill or flatplate, cook the chicken for 5 ~ 10 minutes until well browned, cook through and turning once. (Optional : Cook the bacon until crisp)

4. Cut the buns in halves. Toast the buns in a grill with the cut faces facing top heater element until a light brown.  On the bun base, layer tomato, lettuce and chicken. (Optional : add bacon slice,  a small slice to just cover the chicken) Top with garlic mayonnaise before finishing with the bun top. Stick a toothpick in the middle of the burger to prevent a collapse.

For less carbo : Replace the buns with lettuce. Instead of using buns in step 4, replace the bun with 1 leave of lettuce. Place the lettuce on a plate, place the tomato, then the chicken (and the bacon if you want it). Top with the garlic mayonnaise and then wrap up with the lettuce.